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“Josslyn Aldridge wasn’t just any woman. She was an ex-colleague of his. It hadn’t hit me when I studied the pictures of Rosa and her husband, but when I looked at them again, there he was, Tilton Bond. In the background, hardly noticeable. I thought he was looking at Janice in that picture, but in actual fact he was looking at Rosa. But then I also noticed Josslyn. And when you look closely, you can see that Josslyn has the same look in her eyes that Tilton had. But where Tilton is looking at Rosa, she is actually looking at Tilton.”

“She was in love with him?” asked Harriet.

“She was. Even invisible people have people who are in love with them, only they’re too obsessed with the ones they can’t have to notice. But Josslyn wanted him just as much as he wanted Rosa. And so all these many years later, when she bumped into him, she immediately recognized him as her old colleague Ernest. And of course he couldn’t have that. She would have jeopardized everything he’d worked so hard to achieve.”

“Everything he’d killed to achieve, you mean,” Brutus grunted.

“So he killed Josslyn? Just like that?” asked Dooley.

“Yes, he did. He arranged to meet her that evening on the beach, and killed her. Josslyn must have been so happy—so thrilled to finally meet him again—the colleague she’d loved from afar all those years. She didn’t have a clue her fate was sealed the moment he laid eyes on her and saw that she recognized him. He then made it look like a mugging by grabbing her purse, removing her wallet and dumping her purse in the sand.”

“So what about the blackmailer?” asked Harriet. “Why did he kill him?”

“Willie Dornhauser had seen Chase’s appeal for witnesses in Josslyn’s mugging, and had googled Josslyn. I think he must have hit on the same picture I saw, and immediately recognized Rosa. He then did some digging, and discovered that Rosa’s husband was actually the infamous Clive Atcheson,who’d absconded with five million dollars, and figured here was an opportunity to make some money.”

“So he put the squeeze on Rosa,” said Brutus, nodding.

“Only Tilton realized that if this guy had discovered his wife’s true identity, it was only a matter of time before he put two and two together, and discovered his identity as well. So the night the money was to change hands, Tilton was also in the park, watching and waiting. And when Willie showed up, he followed him home and killed him on the spot.”

“But why didn’t he take the money?” asked Harriet.

“I think Edwardo showed up and Tilton had to flee the scene before he could search the house. And in a way, that actually worked out even better for him, since Edwardo took the money, and in the process set himself up as the perfect suspect.”

“He was very lucky,” said Dooley.

“He was, until Todd started digging into his past life, and discovering certain things.”

“Todd found out who he really was?” asked Harriet.

I nodded.“Todd had also seen Chase’s appeal.”

“Looks like that appeal made a big difference!” said Dooley.

“It did. What actually happened was that the Bonds had watched that appeal together, as a family.”

“Just like we did!”

“And Rosa recognized Josslyn, and mentioned something about her being an ex-colleague of her husband’s. And Todd being Todd, and always eager to find out anything he could about his real dad, started surfing the web, looking up Josslyn. And that’s when he recognized his stepdad as also being one of his real dad’s colleagues.”

“That must have been a great shock to him,” said Harriet.

“Yes, it was. He confronted his stepdad, and accused him of knowing what had happened to his dad, and maybe even lying to protect him. He might have even believed that Tilton and Clive had set up that bank heist together, and split the money.”

“So he didn’t realize the ugly truth, that his stepdad had killed his real dad.”

“No, he didn’t. But he was getting close. Too close. He had a big fight with his stepdad, with Todd demanding to know where his dad was, and how he could get in touch with him, and that’s when Todd walked out and went to stay with his best friend Scott.”

“But he didn’t tell Scott,” said Brutus.

“Or Layla,” said Harriet.

“No, I think he was ashamed of what his dad had done, and didn’t want them to know. Also, he wanted to protect the family’s new identity. If it became known that he was the son of an infamous bank robber, their life in Hampton Cove was over. So he kept quiet, but he also kept digging.”

“So that’s why he was so withdrawn and irritable,” said Harriet.

“I think he must have reconstructed some sort of theory in his head, and that’s when he set up a meeting with his stepdad, to pressure him into telling him the truth. Though I’m pretty sure that all he wanted was to get in touch with his dad in Mexico.”

“So he met Tilton that night by the pool? At the Walcotts?”

“Yes. Todd waited until Scott and Layla had gone to bed, then called Tilton and arranged to meet. And that’s when Tilton killed his stepson, and took his phone and laptop.”